“It’s time we broaden our base and look not at where the disabilities are, but the abilities,” Landis says.

Kalin O’Brien worked his way up to be the store’s assistant manager. He used to work in a hospital cafeteria, mostly wiping down tables, he says, adding Howdy Homemade was a chance to move on to something greater.

Landis saw in him, what other employers might have overlooked.

“Tom was willing enough to see that I could probably work here. He thinks I’m dependable enough to be onsite early in the morning,” O’Brien says.

Landis has opened 13 restaurants in his career, and first hired employees with special needs at one of his Texadelphia restaurants.

“Maybe God created those with Down syndrome to be more friendly than your neurotypical. Every restaurant wants culinary consistency, whether it’s low end or high end. No one better for that than those on the Autism spectrum,” Landis says.

But he sees an ice cream shop like Howdy Homemade as the kind of business an employee could one day own.

“I want to be an entrepreneur and go into philanthropy,” says Howdy Homemade employee Chris Creixell, who has worked here for one year.

“I like to see the smiles on little kids and their parents,” says Lindsey Riddel, who found her first job at Howdy Homemade.